“We have a lot of catching up to do,” Merritt agreed. “The wizards working down in the catacomb areas are being moved as we speak. Then we can go to work on sealing off the entire area. I’ve already prepared some spell-forms for them to use.”
“How is Naja doing?” Magda asked.
“She is already hard at work helping the gifted.” Quinn let out a troubled sigh. “After some of the things she talked about with me, they are going to have a lot of work to do. She’s incredibly intelligent, though, and she’s going to be an invaluable help. She understands things that I don’t think one in ten of our gifted entirely grasp.”
As Quinn was talking to Magda, Merritt selected a journal from the row standing on the desk. “Do you mind?” he asked.
Quinn looked back and then gestured. “No, please, go ahead. I’ve always intended my journals to one day be read by others. I’m hoping that it will give people in the future an insight to these troubled, historic times, much the way I’ve gotten insights and knowledge from old books I’ve read.”
Merritt, already engrossed in reading through one of the journals, made a sound deep in his throat in answer.
Quinn returned to what he had been telling Magda. “As a sorceress and a spiritist, Naja has remarkable talents and abilities. She can more than fill in for the work that Isidore was doing helping the gifted. Isidore was only working at the fringes of a lot of things, trying to understand them. Naja was at the center of them. In some cases, she helped originate what Isidore was only starting to investigate.
“It’s possible that she will be able to unravel the mysteries of the spirits trapped between worlds. She’s hoping that maybe she can find a way to guide them through the veil.
“We’re more than fortunate that Naja came over to our side. It will accelerate our understanding of how to catch up with what those in the Old World are doing to defend against us, and losing her specialized assistance will be a blow to the efforts of Sulachan’s gifted.” Quinn lifted his brow as he tilted his head toward her. “But more than that, I would hate to have to fight against that woman. Having grown up in such a strange and exotic place, she is, well, she is unlike anyone I’ve ever met.”
“I know what you mean,” Magda said. “From the first moment I saw her, I knew this is not a woman to underestimate.” Magda glanced toward the sliph. “Have you heard from Lord Rahl, yet?”
“A couple days back, when we thought Lothain was going to be named First Wizard, I sent an urgent message to him through a journey book.” Quinn gestured to the well. “He should be on his way.”
“Quinn,” Magda said, gathering her thoughts to move on to their reason for coming down to the sliph’s room in the first place, “Merritt and I need to tell you about some important matters.”
“Very important,” Merritt said, lowering the journal he was reading. “But the things we have to tell you about must be held in strictest confidence. Once we tell you, only the three of us will know about it, and it has to stay that way. Forever.”
“Of course,” Quinn said as he nodded with an earnest, if worried, look. “You both know that you can trust me. What is it? Has something else happened?”
“Yes,” Merritt said on his way back from the table, “and we need your help.”
Chapter 99
“My help?” Quinn shrugged. “Of course. What is it? What’s happened?”
“We need you to know that I completed the key,” Merritt told him.
Quinn blinked. “What?”
“The magic used to complete the key has a great deal in common with the magic I used to create the Confessor power.”
“But you always told me that you had to have the seventh-level-breach calculations to complete the key.”
“Baraccus left the formulas for Merritt to find,” Magda told him. “With the calculations he needed, Merritt was able to complete the key.”
Quinn stared at her. “The key to the power of Or— Or—” he stammered.
“Orden,” Merritt finished.
Quinn squinted at him. “You completed the key? It’s done?”
Looking him in the eye, Merritt lifted the sword a few inches and let it drop back into its scabbard.
Quinn wiped a hand across his face as he sighed. “The teams will be relieved.”
“You can’t tell them,” Magda said. “You can’t tell another soul. You can’t tell anyone.”
“What?” Quinn was clearly perplexed. “Why not?”
Magda gripped his arm. “Quinn, listen to me. There’s more to it. There are complications. What we have to tell you requires the utmost secrecy.”
“All right.” He took a breath to compose himself. “What else?”
“When Baraccus came back from the Temple of the Winds, he told me that the boxes of Orden were gone. Someone took them.”
Quinn’s eyes widened as his face went white. “Dear spirits. Do you have any idea what—”
“I know about the power they contain,” she said. “Baraccus didn’t tell anyone but me for a reason. I’ve only told Merritt and now you know. No one else can know about this.”
“This is important, Quinn,” Merritt added in a grave tone, holding the journal closed with a finger marking his place. “We don’t know who stole the boxes of Orden. We don’t believe that Baraccus did either. He was obviously very worried about the boxes being gone. We think that’s why he brought the rift calculations back. He hid the formulas. We think he wanted me to find them and complete the key.”
“Why would he hide them? The key is the safeguard for the power. The key may be the only thing that could control a release. Why wouldn’t he want the teams trying to create the key to have the necessary formulas?”
“Think about it,” Magda said. “Think of how the Keep has been compromised by traitors, spies, and dream walkers. If anyone had access to the formulas necessary to complete the key, then whoever has the boxes would be able to get hold of those formulas and complete the key themselves and unlock the power.”
Quinn gazed off in thought. “That
’s true . . .”
“When Baraccus brought those valuable seventh-level-breach formulas back,” Merritt said, “he knew how important they were. He hid the calculations so they wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands.”
“Where were they hidden? How did you discover them?”
“He wrote down the calculations in his notebooks that he left on his workbench. Right there in plain sight the whole time. People who saw those books didn’t even know what was in them, because they were not the right people. When Magda gave me his tools, I discovered the formulas in his notebooks.
“He didn’t tell anyone but Magda about the boxes being gone. I think he left a trail that took her to me. I think he wanted me to find the rift calculations because he knew that I was working on the sword alone. I was the right person. He didn’t want anyone else to know about the existence of the formulas to keep whoever has the boxes from making a key.
“That completed key is now the most important object in the world, other than the boxes themselves, because the key can access the power. If whoever has the boxes knew that the key is complete, they would come after it, so we can’t let a word of this get out.”
“Of course,” Quinn said, waving a hand as if to dismiss any concern that he failed to grasp the gravity of the situation. “No one even knows the true purpose of the power of Orden. We know some of its potential, some of its dangers, but we don’t even know for sure its original purpose. Not much is known about the time before the star shift.
“But one thing is certain. If Emperor Sulachan is the one who managed to obtain the boxes of Orden, he would do anything to get his hands on the key.”
“Exactly,” Merritt said. “That’s why we need to hide it.”
“Hide it?” Quinn shook a finger at the sword on Merritt’s hip. “Bags, Merritt! You’re wearing the thing in plain sight!”